If We Wanna Honor Whitney, How About We End Addictions?
With the sudden and tragic passing of Whitney Houston, there’s no doubt there will be scores of tributes. There was a tribute last night at music executive, Clive Davis‘ famous Pre-Grammy Party. There will be one tonight at the Grammys.. Rumors are singers Jennifer Hudson and Chaka Khan will sing in her honor…
There are already tributes on various radio stations as we can tune in and hear Whitney Houston Music Hours… Many deejays are digging into their grates working on Whitney Houston mixes…
There’s no denying the artistic talents Whitney possessed.. If we had to take a poll and ask who has/had the best voice in music, Ms Houston would no doubt be in the top 10.. Songs like ‘I Will Love You‘ and ‘Greatest Love of All‘ best personify her greatness. She was a giant among giants who will surely be missed.
With that being said, as great as her singing has been. As inspiring and as jaw dropping as her songs have been.. As engaging as she’s been on screen and in concert we will have to do a lot more than a mixtape or Grammy tribute to honor Whitney Houston. We will have to do lot more than induct her into the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame or grant her a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.. . Our honoring Whitney will be us taking some decisive action and making a long-term commitment to end the scourge and dirty little secret that has long plagued this entertainment/ music industry-Drugs and substance abuse. It’s hard pill to swallow. It’s an ugly truth.. But we all have to step up to the plate.
Atthe time of this writing, I along with most of us have no idea as to what ended Whitney’s life so suddenly at age 48.
Sadly as people came out of their initial shock, speculation of drug abuse was on many people’s minds and tongues’. CNN’s Don Lemon said during his breaking news broadcast yesterday that we have to talk about Whitney’s addictions because it was such a big part of her…Correction Don.. Addictions have been a big part of American society. I’m gonna come back to that in a minute..
During various broadcasts about Whitney’s passing, we heard discussions about her losing her voice and making a comeback. A comeback from what? Her demons.. Eventually all conversations about Whitney came back to that infamous interview with 20/20′s Dianne Sawyer where she talked about drugs and how crack is wack…
Whitney & Bobby
Today everyone wants to honor Whitney, but yesterday she was the butt of jokes and comedic routines. While everyone pointed fingers at Whitney and acted all righteous about her abuse, many of us were ADDICTED to watching the train wreck that her life had become. We were addicted to the reality show with her and former husband Bobby Brown. We were addicted to the gossip around her. is she still dating Bobby? is she dating singer Ray J? Was she drunk or high at the last party? How many times did we wake up and turn on some urban radio station to hear a host getting their clown on about Whitney Houston..Now many of those hosts wanna lead the way to doing tributes for someone they routinely
She became the poster child for drug abuse and addiction in an industry that is chock full of people dead and alive who have all succumbed at one time or another to some sort of addiction. Over my 25+ years in this music industry I’ve seen a whole lot of ugly truths we like to keep hidden behind the glitz and glam. Anyone in the music/ entertainment industry can tell you stories of executives & shot callers who routinely do lines of coke, pop pills, do speed, take ecstasy or drink themselves under the table while ‘moguling‘. Those abusive habits are far too often shared with the talent/ artists.. In a business where egos are massive and insecurities shallow, taking a ‘lil something something‘ to get amped up or ‘get you open’ is all too commonplace. People don’t wanna talk about it, but its true.
Even the King of Pop had addiction problems
If we look at the pantheon of great Black artists hooked on drugs of one type or another the list is long.. Billy Holiday, John Coltrane, Jimmy Hendrix, Dorothy Dandridge, Dinah Washington, Richard Pryor, Ole Dirty Bastard, Sly Stone, David Ruffin, George Clinton, Frankie Lymon, DJ Screw, James Brown even the King of Pop Michael Jackson and that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Keep in mind these are just Black artists. If I start adding names outside our community like Amy Whinehouse, Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix , Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison to name a few, the list gets substantially longer…
Why are we not doing anything about addictions in our community?
During the pioneering days of Hip Hop which is the generation many of us are a part of, many of those early pioneers who paved the way had serious bouts with an array of drugs.. cocaine, angel dust, freebase, sherm, alchohol etc..If you really look at the history you see by the mid 80s, many pioneering figures disappeared for time. Many had to deal with those demons. Some returned to the fold, many didn’t. Many are still struggling 30 years later.
By the time the crack era hit in the early 80s all the way up to the 90s.. if folks weren’t hooked on taking it, they were hooked on selling it…A lot of that is outlined in the VH1 Documentary Planet Rock the Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation .
Our collective pride and addiction to looking good and being cool in the face of danger has not allowed us to even talk about this in any sort of honest way.. It’s not a pretty picture. But we lost another star way before her time and she was apart of that legacy-whether it was directly related to her cause of death or not..
Addictions are prevalent… They’re all around us and underscore the hypocrisy of America.. We got folks clowning Whitney for substance abuse problems while they sip syrup, shoot up, snort cocaine, do meth or literally sell their souls and their mamma’s soul for 15 minutes of fame..
Daughter Bobbi Kristina Lost Her Mother-Are we thinking about that?
So many of us our addicted to gossip, celebrity culture, living the fast life or a version of it. We’re addicted to money, cheating on spouses, material possessions. Many of us are addicted to high drama and raucous discourse. We’re addicted to shouting down one another, being vicious vs compassionate. We’re addicted to pushing each others buttons. We’re addicted to wanting to know more about the drama behind Whitney’s death more than we are the state of her daughter Bobbi Kristina who just lost her mother. How many of us took a moment to say a prayer or reflect on what she might be going through?
Hell many of us are addicted to our iphones, ipads and other gadgets that we feel we must have at all costs even as they make us go into debt to own them or give us brain tumors to use them..
Someone said Whitney represented a generation of people. Yep she sure did .. She repped the good, the bad and the very ugly and painful.. She was not alone in her addictions.. We all share them. Some minor some major.. In honoring Ms Houston will we talk about that or remain addicted to painting rosy pictures and acting like we aren’t touched by the scourge of addictions that’s systemic in our society? And if you don’t think our addictions are systemic, I suggest we take a long hard look at the so called war on drugs and the current carnage taking place South of the border in Mexico and Columbia.. Who do you think is the economic incentive for all the drugs being shipped into this country from those places? It’s us… Who do you think was the one behind funding secret wars ala Iran-Contra through the sale of cocaine? Us again..
Heck if we really wanna get deep, lets talk about what our troops are dealing with on the battlefield and how they cope after 3 or 4 tours and what many wind up doing to deal with life on their return.. No we don’t wanna talk about those addictions.. We wanna act like there’s no such thing..
In 2012 if the best we can do is a mixtape and few tribute songs then we missed the mark
If we wanna really honor Whitney, how about helping put an end to the demons that plagued her and so many others? If we wanna honor Whitney, how about us having a honest, impactful and earnest discussion about addictions and mental health so we can spare future generations of this pain.
Something to ponder..RIP Whitney Houston
Davey D
We know that there has been long public speculation of Whitneys relationship with bobby being abusive (something your article curiously leaves out). Many women who go to jail for drugs are doing so as a result of an abusive relationship and many get hooked because of those relationships? Selfmedication is definitely something to explore further when we discuss addition-the self medication of ‘our’ soldier but also the self-medication of the families of victims of ‘our’ soldiers. But if we just start with how drug abuse leads to domestic violence (and vis versa), the conversation might really get somewheere.
i appreciate your reflection, d… i think it’s a really deep, layered, and complex issue in our communities having to do with years of colonization and oppression and the myriad ways it manifests in the present…. the political and economic systems in which we live have found ways to profit from all of it, leaving our people either hooked, dead, or behind bars…. how do we begin those conversations so that we understand the deep connections between these demons in many of our loved ones’ lives and the policies and cultural norms that reinforce these…..??
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This is a beautiful piece D. I think that what’s important is that we all see the Whitney, Bobby Brown, ODB and others that you list in ourselves. This is where compassion begins–seeing ourselves in the darkest crevices of those we point to in “disgust” and with great judgement. Remember that when we point one finger out there are three pointed back at ourselves. We need to use tragedy as an opportunity for collective growth. Addictions of some sort will not abate, but bringing greater awareness to them as you have suggested Davey D is a way forward–an opportunity to to lessen their hold and neurotic grip on our very souls. Thank you for this kind and thoughtful piece my brother.
Oneheart,
Fanon
so true, we seem to forget that this is an epidemic in all walks of life. We have lost Michael Jackson, Amy Wine house and numerous artists through the years, yet the addiction piece is often overlooked or criticized. Once the artist is gone our society will at times focus on this issue yet it goes under the rug later on. We should as a society try to focus on the real concerns that effect people. All of us at some point have either dealt with addiction or lost someone to it. I know I have. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for writing the most honest statement I have yet seen about the state of our union.
The only thing you missed, I think, is the addiction pushing young singers/actors/sports figures to the point that these young performers need surgery to repair the damage that constantly performing to stay on top has done to them within the first few years of their career. Adele is the prime poster girl at the Grammy’s this year. Gone are the days when an artist is nurtured so that their artistry can develop and be enjoyed for a lifetime.
Add to this the way some people try to cut corners (money). My son has been flown to New York for a late night TV performance on Tuesday, flown back to LA for one day, then flown back to New York for an early Good Morning America “concert” on Thursday because it was cheaper to fly everyone on a red eye flight both ways than to let them stay for two nights at a hotel. The young singer he was performing with has since had a VERY public meltdown, after canceling many performances in shows/traditions she had absolutely no training to deal with. Pushed by people who REALLY, REALLY should have known better. Reviled by a public who has no idea of the kinds of demands on her. Add in one abusive relationship, along with the money to be made watching her life derail, and people were actually surprised that she tried to kill herself?
People’s exposure to music (or acting) these days is rarely through live performances. We now expect every live performance to have the perfection of a polished (tracked, edited, and computer enhanced) recorded performance. This makes it very easy to exploit performers, because artists, especially young ones, will spend endless hours honing their craft. The toll that perfection takes on the psyche, let alone the physical “instrument,” as well as the need to always be “up” for the next performance, is virtually unimaginable to the people who do not feel the innate compulsion to live up to these unrealistic expectations.
What addiction is it that drives this? It is our addiction to needing to be CONSTANTLY ENTERTAINED. We expect “spectacle” for even the most wonderful singer. As costs spiral, the performer is driven even harder. There’s the demand to always have “NEW” product, as the media machine creates constant over-exposure that make us feel irritated at even the best song when it’s on every station, every hour.
For the performer, constant perfection in the name of entertainment leads to performance anxiety. Need something for that? But that might make you feel less energetic. Something to help that? And after the performance? Over-amped performers stuck in a hotel room with no where to go. Unfortunately, the performers themselves have bought into the “I must be entertained, perfectly” trap. “What do I do when I’m not working?” Try to get by until the next performance, which all too often is by blurring that downtime with alcohol, drugs, sex, even our own adrenaline (“a good fight”). Feeling drugged out for the next performance? Anxiety. And it starts all over again.
And unfortunately, the expectation of perfection and the need to be constantly entertained has its downfalls for the non-performer. It’s so much easier to watch passively than to try ourselves, possibly be put up to ridicule (the same anxiety the professional feels). We haven’t learned that imperfect performances are still entertaining, even fun! We lose out on learning what it takes to create, what it takes to put on a show. We lose our empathy, we know longer feel the “at-one-ment” which is what a performance is really all about: creating the emotional experience that the audience shares with the performer and each other, that lifts us above ourselves, gives us an awareness of “being one,” an experience that can actually be SEEN with current brain imaging techniques. We have misplaced our ability to create our own diversions, understand the process, entertain ourselves, and realize that when we go to a show, people, real people, (and not only the folks on stage) are showing us what they have worked so hard to attain. Ultimately, we place less value on what we are seeing, and become bored, needing ever more spectacle to be satisfied.
Addiction.
BRAVO! simply BRAVO!
Davey
Once again, you speak truth to power (in this case, mainstream media) so eloquently-
There are so many tragedies here- The tragedy of a woman who lost sight of herself, the tragedy of addiction, the tragedy of a daughter’s incomprehenisble loss and the tragedy of a voyeuristic culture that is unforgiving and cruel. Thank you for reminding us that we need to expose and deal with some our very real, painful truths in our communities -too many talented people, known and unknown are dying because of our love affair with addictions-all kinds.
God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way
By a roadway in the wilderness
He’ll lead me
And rivers in the desert will I see
Heaven and earth will fade
But His Word will still remain
He will do something new today
tandblekninng med laser…
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